


Dance Me to the End of Love

by BroadwayBaggins



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:09:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22832314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BroadwayBaggins/pseuds/BroadwayBaggins
Summary: They were never meant to last, she supposed.
Relationships: Byron Hale/Anne Hastings
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Dance Me to the End of Love

“Why? Just tell me that,” she said, hating how she sounded. Gone was the confidence that she usually carried herself with, disappeared like a puff of smoke the moment he had burdened her with this news. She sounded weak, defeated, helpless–the very things that Anne Hastings had sworn to herself that she would never feel again.

He didn’t look her in the eye. She wanted to reach out and take him by the shoulders, the ears, whatever she could reach, and _make_ him look at her. She wanted to scream, to cry, to beg him not to–but she couldn’t. She stood still as a statue. It was all she would allow herself to do.

“It’s too complicated to explain right now,” he said softly. It was a lie, and they both knew it. “Just know that I have urgent business that requires me to go. With Foster back from his sojourn in Boston, it seemed like a good time to…” He cut himself off, shaking his head. “I just have to go. I’m sorry. I’ll come back soon, if I can. The hospital–” he swallowed hard, as if his next words physically pained him. “The hospital will be in good hands with you and Foster. And Nurse Mary will be back in two weeks. It’s going to…it’s going to be all right.”

“So why do you have to go?” she demanded, but all of her usual conviction had fled from her voice.

“I’ll write to you.”

Another lie, and they both knew it.

Anne looked away, a muscle clenching in her jaw the only thing that betrayed how she felt. Her face was a blank mask other than that. She wouldn’t allow it to be anything else.

He looked at her–she could feel his gaze–for a long moment before turning away, picking up his bag on the way out. Anne looked up just in time to see the door closing behind him as Byron Hale left Mansion House behind.

**Author's Note:**

> This was another tumblr prompt, the first sentence supplied by middlemarch. I thought it merited its own story just in case I want to continue it, although I'm not sure I will. But I hope you enjoy it anyway!
> 
> The title comes from the song of the same name, originally by Leonard Cohen, although I was listening to the cover of it by The Civil Wars when I was writing!


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